A Rajya Sabha committee has directed the health department to demand a substantially greater budget for health from the Finance Ministry.

Abysmal spending on health had “impinged” upon the effective delivery of health care services to the people, a Rajya Sabha Standing Committee has said in a recent report. The committee has called for the health department to make a strong case for more health funding to the Finance Ministry before it finalises the union budget for the coming year.

Th standing committee’s action taken report on health budget allocations recommendations made in April was released on December 14, in which it has asked for the health department to provide a roadmap to reverse the trend of low budgetary allocations to the health sector. The new recommendations were made a little more than a month before the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the Union budget on February 1.

In the April report, the committee led by Samajwadi Party MP Ramgopal Yadav had called noted that the total budget allocation for health stands to just 1.2% of total GDP. India has one of the sparsest health budgets in the world, lower than Nepal, Sri Lanka, and many other developing countries.

As per the 12th Five-Year Plan for the years between 2012 and 2017, the Planning Commission had approved raising government expenditure to 2.5% of the GDP, which entails a massive 147% rise in public health expenditure. Currently the total budget allocation in five years works out to what the committee calls a “measly 46.5%”.

“The committee has taken the view that the financial allocation for the health department were grossly underfinanced,” said Ravi Duggal, country coordinator for the International Budget Partnership that networks with organisations working on public budgeting.

Government’s response

In reply to the committee, the government has stated that public health expenditure is based on “availability of financial resources” and it has to keep in mind the competing demands on the resources of the government and the “absorptive capacity” of the health sector – that is the capacity to effectively and efficiently spend the funds.

Health department officials said that the observations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee has been communicated to the finance department that makes budgetary allocations.

The committee also took note of the 2,423 pending utilisation certificates, which are essentially expenditure statements, for various grants given by the health department to the states. The utilisation certificates amount to Rs 3,186.88 crores and have been pending since 2005. Non-submission of the utilisation reports indicates lack of monitoring of corresponding projects and could also hamper the further release of funds to these projects. The government has stated that it has, from time to time, requested states to submit their utilisation reports and a team has visited some of the states to ensure effective implementation.

State spending on health

In 2015-’16, the share of the tax pool from the states had increased from 32% to 42%, as per the 14th Finance Commission’s recommendation. The Centre had cited the rise in the state tax pool for cutting Union health expenditure. The states, however, had not increased their health budgets correspondingly , the committee said in April.

The government had tried to address reduction in allocation of funds to the National Health Mission by imposing a condition requiring the states to raise their own share in healthcare spending by 15%.

“This is where the centre has passed on the buck to the states,” said Duggal. “There is something more that the governments should do in terms of pushing the state.”

The information provided by the government showed that, out of 36 states and union territories, 22 had increased their health budgets by 10% or more in comparison to the financial year 2015-’16. However, states such as Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur and Sikkim had not shown any increase in their health budgets but have, in fact, shown a “negative trend” or a reduced increase in the budget.

The committee has recommended the union health department to keep a close watch on the states and also ensure the allocated funds get spent.

Laboratory capacity

The committee asked the government to increase laboratory capacity at district level to improve the quality of laboratory-based data for disease surveillance and disease outbreak investigations. Currently only 111 out of the envisaged 300 laboratories are functional.

The committee has also cautioned the government about its national polio programme. In April 2016, the government introduced the Inactivated Polio Vaccine programme and also planned to phase out the Oral Polio Vaccine. The department pointed to a global shortage of the new vaccine and how domestic manufacturers had not been able to fulfill the government’s requirement. The committee cautioned the department to “maintain strict surveillance” with respect to domestic production of the new vaccine as its shortage would jeopardise the hard earned success in elimination of polio in the country.

The committee has accepted some of the actions taken by the government. Addressing the steady increase of shortfall of doctors in the rural sector, the government has decided to reserve 50% of sears in post-graduate diploma courses for people who have served for more than three years in remote areas. Each year of service in a remote area will also account as 10% marks in entrance tests of post-graduate courses.

It also accepted the government’s efforts to boost immunisation rates and family planning, among other programmes. “Most of the work the centre has done were anyway under process, and not very radical,” said Duggal.

The right machine can save water, power consumption, time, energy and your clothes from damage.

In 2010, Han Rosling, a Swedish statistician, convinced a room full of people that the washing machine was the greatest invention of the industrial revolution. In the TED talk delivered by him, he illuminates how the washing machine freed women from doing hours of labour intensive laundry, giving them the time to read books and eventually join the labour force. Rosling’s argument rings true even today as it is difficult to deny the significance of the washing machine in our everyday lives.

For many households, buying a washing machine is a sizable investment. Oddly, buyers underestimate the importance of the decision-making process while buying one and don’t research the purchase as much as they would for a television or refrigerator. Most buyers limit their buying criteria to type, size and price of the washing machine.

Visible technological advancements can be seen all around us, making it fair to expect a lot more from household appliances, especially washing machines. Here are a few features to expect and look out for before investing in a washing machine:

Cover your basics

Do you wash your towels every day? How frequently do you do your laundry? Are you okay with a bit of manual intervention during the wash cycle? These questions will help filter the basic type of washing machine you need. The semi-automatics require manual intervention to move clothes from the washing tub to the drying tub and are priced lower than a fully-automatic. A fully-automatic comes in two types: front load and top load. Front loading machines use less water by rotating the inner drum and using gravity to move the clothes through water.

Simple steps to get the best from your washing machineSimple steps to get the best from your washing machineSimple steps to get the best from your washing machine

Size matters

The size or the capacity of the machine is directly proportional to the consumption of electricity. The right machine capacity depends on the daily requirement of the household. For instance, for couples or individuals, a 6kg capacity would be adequate whereas a family of four might need an 8 kg or bigger capacity for their laundry needs. This is an important factor to consider since the wrong decision can consume an unnecessary amount of electricity.

Machine intelligence that helps save time

In situations when time works against you and your laundry, features of a well-designed washing machine can come to rescue. There are programmes for urgent laundry needs that provide clean laundry in a super quick 15 to 30 minutes’ cycle; a time delay feature that can assist you to start the laundry at a desired time etc. Many of these features dispel the notion that longer wash cycles mean cleaner clothes. In fact, some washing machines come with pre-activated wash cycles that offer shortest wash cycles across all programmes without compromising on cleanliness.

The green quotient

Despite the conveniences washing machines offer, many of them also consume a substantial amount of electricity and water. By paying close attention to performance features, it’s possible to find washing machines that use less water and energy. For example, there are machines which can adjust the levels of water used based on the size of the load. The reduced water usage, in turn, helps reduce the usage of electricity. Further, machines that promise a silent, no-vibration wash don’t just reduce noise – they are also more efficient as they are designed to work with less friction, thus reducing the energy consumed.

Customisable washing modes

Crushed dresses, out-of-shape shirts and shrunken sweaters are stuff of laundry nightmares. Most of us would rather take out the time to hand wash our expensive items of clothing rather than trusting the washing machine. To get the dirt out of clothes, washing machines use speed to first agitate the clothes and spin the water out of them, a process that takes a toll on the fabric. Fortunately, advanced machines come equipped with washing modes that control speed and water temperature depending on the fabric. While jeans and towels can endure a high-speed tumble and spin action, delicate fabrics like silk need a gentler wash at low speeds. Some machines also have a monsoon mode. This is an India specific mode that gives clothes a hot rinse and spin to reduce drying time during monsoons. A super clean mode will use hot water to clean the clothes deeply.

Washing machines have come a long way, from a wooden drum powered by motor to high-tech machines that come equipped with automatic washing modes. Bosch washing machines include all the above-mentioned features and provide damage free laundry in an energy efficient way. With 32 different washing modes, Bosch washing machines can create custom wash cycles for different types of laundry, be it lightly soiled linens, or stained woollens. The ActiveWater feature in Bosch washing machines senses the laundry load and optimises the usage of water and electricity. Its EcoSilentDrive motor draws energy from a permanent magnet, thereby saving energy and giving a silent wash. The fear of expensive clothes being wringed to shapelessness in a washing machine is a common one. The video below explains how Bosch’s unique VarioDrumTM technology achieves damage free laundry.